Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

2026 is the 55th birthday of the Kamen Rider franchise overall. It's already known that I'm NOT particularly interested in the Showa-era  Kamen Rider series . It can be helpful to watch some old shows (like watching older Super Sentai seasons, which is now advisable if you haven't), but there are times when newer shows can be better (based on execution). Kamen Rider Zeztz is on the 55th year of The First Kamen Rider,  with Kamen Rider Revice being the 50th year. So yeah, I confess I was already feeling indifferent about Kamen Rider causing me to barely give "updates" or even reactions of updates here, in favor of other passions or watching some older media I haven't watched. Zeztz's premise has Baku Yorozu as the main Kamen Rider recruited by the Confidential Organized Defensive Establishment, or CODE. CODE's supposedly fighting the phenomenon called Nightmares -- monsters born out of nightmares. The Nightmares affect both dreams and the real world. Th...

  The F4 tour is over. Honestly, I still feel like inwardly weeping because Barbie Xu died too soon in 2025. The F4 reunion concert had F4 (because Ashin took Ken Chu's place). As the tour concludes, I never realized I would be writing this. Right now, let's get into parts of Meteor Garden that operated on Manga logic -- because it was based on a MANGA!  F4's ABSOLUTE DOMINION of Ying De (and why Ying De STILL SURVIVES) needs extra plot armor The F4 or Flower Four are basically Manga characters with plot armor. Seeing Hana Yori Dango the Anime was basically enlightening. I always commented how Jerry Yan looks too much like Tsukasa or how Vic Zhou looks like Rui. The dynamics of Ying De (or Eitoku in the Manga) are basically a school where F4 reigns with impunity.  F4's villainy is LOUD AND PROUD. Daoming Si or Ah Si reigns with 100% IMPUNITY until he was challenged by Shan Cai. In reality, Taiwan's very strict academic environment would've already shut down Ying...

It's no secret that I tend to watch shows for "the girl". I was engaged in some legal dramas, crazy Wuxia, and it's back to rom-coms. However, spoiler alert: there's no love triangle in Everyone Loves Me  focuses on "Will they or won't they?" dynamics. In fact, it has some realistic, serious scenes such as parental conflicts (which happen later). It focuses on the romance that happens between two people who played online. Talk about Love O2O from 2016 but with a twist. In fact, the male character Gu Xun (acted by Lin Yi) doesn't realize that the avatar he's in love with is actually Yue Qianling (Zhou Ye).  Watching this show made me think of my childhood. There was the retro arcade scene where games like Street Fighter II were featured. Is that arcade location in China real or not? Arcade games tend to swallow your quarters and challenge only the best of the best. Playing Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection made me think of the arcade games...

Previously, I wrote about Plot vs. Pretty . There are no questions asked that I tend to watch a show "just for the girl," such as The Female General and currently Everyone Loves Me (ongoing). I can't deny that I watched Blossoming Love because Sun Zhenni (who I first saw as a secondary character in Till the End of the Moon as a gumiho) was just super pretty. I thought about watching legal dramas, whether they're from China, Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea. South Korean legal dramas tend to be one of my favorite things to watch, even if eye candy is NON-EXISTENT FOR ME . Sure, I can get drawn by the eye candy, but a good plot automatically covers every appearance. Recalling the early phase in my college days I remember the premiere of Chinovelas (mostly from Taiwan), and it started with Meteor Garden . I didn't find the late Barbie Xu all that pretty (but I used to like a girl who resembled her) compared to Mao Inoue. However, I found Meteor Garden (2001) better t...

There are times when Wuxia/Xianxia are often put under the Hokkien word Ko Cha or 古早 (Gǔzǎo) in Mandarin. This time, I checked out Veil of Shadows,  which becomes a complex battle against fate. I have had the bad habit of actually checking out shows by the lovely Ju Jingyu, such as Madam White Snake . This time, Veil of Shadows focuses on the complex battle against fate. Thankfully, it's only 29 episodes, but it's got a LONG PLOT within the show's context. The show can get confusing because it's a complex battle against fate. The story involves Jingyi's character as a Gumiho named Lu Wuyi. Her co-protagonist is Wu Shiguang (played by Joseph Zeng / Zeng Shunxi) as a mysterious demon hunter. There's a deep, dark secret with Shiguang that the series slowly reveals. Wu Wangyan (played by Chen Duling) is Wuyi's older sister. Li Jie (played by Yan An) is the commander of the Shilin Sect. The antagonists tend to be more in the background. It gets difficult to talk ...

I just finished another Korean legal drama. This time, I watched Pro Bono on Netflix . This is a legal drama with 12 episodes that features a "Thor-like" judge Kang Da-Wit (Jung Kyung-Ho). Da-Wit was trying to operate based on pure logic, the hammer of the law, but he failed to anticipate a frame-up. Instead, a fake bribery accusation (led by Yoo Jae-Bum, acted by Yun Je-wook) causes Da-Wit to hit rock bottom and find out the REAL WORLD that law isn't purely about algorithms. It also requires fresh human emotions. That's what happens during the series.  The whole course has Da-Wit become part of the Pro Bono team, aka the public service team. This is where he meets the secondary lead, Park Gi-Ppeum (acted by So Ju-Yeon, born in 1993, while the lead actor is in his 40s), Jang Yeong-Sil (Yoon Na-Moo), Yoo Nan-Hui (Seo Hye-Won), and Hwang Jun-U (Kang Hyoung-Suk). This is where Da-Wit learns through various law cases, like Kaya, a foreign bride from Myanmar; an...